A friend of mine recently told me, when I was telling him what I wanted to do to my truck and what not that if I was to put a Tonneau cover of sorts on my bed that I can register my truck as a passenger car? This just makes no sense but was wondering if any of you have heard of such a thing.

There's a guy at my work that has an 01'' Dakota with a cover and has achieved this "My truck is a car" trick and therefore his registration is less money.... Just got mine in the mail yesterday for $303

 

yeah you can do it, but its called fraud and you go to jail if you get caught. your truck is a truck, not a car. Its called a truck because of its capabilities, not its look. even with a tonneau on, you can still haul/tow beyond whatever CA deems appropriate to be called a "truck". Its based on GVWR, not whether or not you have everything contained like a car does

 

yea I dont know about that tonneau deal. I know cali has some goofy laws but that seems a little far fetched. I thought you guys out there need to submit weight certificates and your fees are based off your VIN number. Here's the site that calculates what your registration renewal would be and it lists no exemptions. https://mv.dmv.ca.gov/FeeCalculatorWeb/index.jsp


But it is California, so who knows.

 

gotta love tx!!

 

well, here in NY any truck under 5800 or 6200lbs??? GVWR can be registered as a passenger class registration rather than commercial. ONLY if you are under the GVWR limit and have no business decals on the sides of your truck.
All goes by weight here so passenger or commercial plates make no difference really because you get charged the higher rate. I believe the discount is with insurance companies at that point???

 

I use to have a El Camino here in IL and when I asked about car vs truck plates this is how it was explained to me. If you haul any kind of cargo you have to run truck plates, if you get caught hauling anything with car plates on it you would get a ticket for improper registration.

 

Ahhhh yes....one reason I moved from CA.

 

Haha good to know....now I'll just joke the guy that I'm calling the cops to hassle him about "improper" registration haha

 

next time he tries to haul anything, just tell him "sorry bro your 'car' cant haul that...you need a truck"

 

for NY read HERE

also, click on a passenger class reg for a pick-up which is in the above link. The only time it matters whether or not your will have issue's in driving on Parkways or other type highways in the city where your heavy truck really isn't allowed but your running on passenger plates. Hauling or towing doesn't matter as long as your not strapped with business banners doing stuff commercially. It could vary state to state and even from one city to the next. I'd suggest looking up your local laws regarding that because I'm sure the initial cost isn't worth saving as much as the hassle would provide for you. I think the difference is very minimal here in NY. Like $5 processing fee for our weight trucks and when you get upwards of 10,000lbs, then the costs rise fast.